Will there be a terrorist attack at the Sochi Winter Olympics?

The 65,000-kilometer (40,389 mile) Sochi torch relay, which started on Oct. 7, is the longest in Olympic history.

Given the threats against the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, the Olympic motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger” might have to include “Scarier.”

Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins wrote this week that by choosing Sochi the International Olympic Committee chose to put the 2016 winter games in a “war zone.” She makes a persuasive case. “Black widow” terrorist groups have threatened to attack the games, which are taking place in a region where attacks killed nearly 400 people last year. Another potential threat is an attack by Syrians who don’t like Russia President Vladimir Putin’s support of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

It has cost an estimated $3 billion just for security at these Olympics, which Mr. Putin lobbied to get as sign of prestigious for himself. Ms. Jenkins says Putin presides over a “thugocracy” that some believe may have stolen as much as $30 billion of the $50 billion spent to prepare Sochi as the site. Putin generally has treated critics the way windshields treat bugs. If homes were in the way of Olympic construction, the homes were seized and the owners evicted.

Security was a worry before 9/11, but it has become an obsession as the means for terrorist attacks have widened and simplified and the stage has gotten bigger. Politics has always been a part of the Olympics, but at Sochi it’s getting equal billing with the events. Putin wants to make a statement, and violence – in Sochi or in another part of Russia, while the country is focused on the games — would be a statement of its own.

What do you think? Will there be a terrorist attack on the Sochi Winter Olympics?